Imran Farooq’s suspected killers detained ‘illegally’: AHRC

LONDON: The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) says the alleged detention of the suspected killers of MQM leader Dr Imran Farooq — Mohsin Ali and Kashif Khan Kamran — without judicial trial was in violation of the Constitution of Pakistan as well as the international law.
Mohsin Ali and Kashif Khan, who entered Britain on student visas but went on to allegedly kill Dr Farooq, are believed to be in the custody of Pakistan’s security agencies since 19 September 2011.
Scotland Yard Commissioner Bernard Howe had told this correspondent that the two men are in Pakistani custody but the Pakistani government officials sidestepped questions on the two men, variously denying their existence in Pakistan as well as issuing vague statements.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan became the first Pakistani official in four years who came almost close to accepting that the two men may be handed over to Britain but it will be conditioned that Britain cooperates on equal basis with Pakistan.
He also said the handler of the two men, Moazzam Ali Khan, had also been arrested from Karachi. When this scribe asked Chaudhry Nisar here last month about the two men, he said he will check and get back but didn’t comment any further.
It’s believed that the two men were arrested at the Jinnah Airport in Karachi after they landed from Colombo, where they had gone from London’s Heathrow airport. Since then their whereabouts remain unknown.
In a press briefing on 14 April 2015, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the two suspects remain in the custody of Pakistan but that the men were not detained in connection with the murder of Imran Farooq.
The AHRC said “ironically, it has been nearly 4 years since Mohsin Ali Syed and Mohammed Kashif Khan Kamran were picked up and held under the unlawful custody” but “they have not been presented before a competent judicial authority since and no due process has been initiated in the courts”.
The rights group said: “The two alleged murderers have been denied the right to be heard and are being interned at a secret location in flagrant violation of the clear direction of Article 10A of the Constitution of Pakistan.”
The AHRC said “it is a mockery of the rule of law in the country” that the two men remain in detention”.It called on the Government of Pakistan to “deal with them lawfully and within the ambit of the constitutionally mandated judicial process”.